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I am on my way on a new adventure - last Monday I started my new job at Northern Quest Resort & Casino. They recently created a brand new position - Interactive Communications Strategist - that had my name written all over it. The position is housed in the Hotel Sales & Marketing department on the resort side, but I will be working on website content and search engine optimization as well as social media strategies and execution for several entities including: - Kalispel Tribe
- the Resort
- the Casino
- The Q Sports Bar
- Impluse nightclub
- Legends of Fire cigar bar
- Current Spa & Salon
- Masselow's (the fine dining restaurant at the resort)
Our temporary offices are located behind the new parking garage and the hotel in what's known as the "PR trailer." There are 10 of us in the trailer, which is about the size of the portable classrooms we had a Colbert Elementary back in the '80s and early '90s. In a few weeks, our offices will be moved into the hotel. I haven't even seen the hotel yet!
It has been really hard to leave my family at the Spokane Regional CVB. I wouldn't be the woman/mother/friend/marketer/social media fiend that I am if it weren't for the love and support I received from the bosses and co-workers there.
I am very excited about the opportunity my new job holds. But I really have my work cut out for me. I am 100% ready to hit the ground running!
Here's an argument against Prop 4 that I saw on a blog. It's an argument I hadn't even thought of before:
"The Bill of Rights declares that persons have 'rights' to 'affordable' health care, housing, energy, to be paid a certain wage, and various other goodies on every leftist’s wish list. The trouble here, of course, is that all these goodies must be provided by other persons — health care providers, builders, energy producers, employers, *et al*. So a claim to a 'right' to such things entails a claim to the services of other people — to their time, talents, energy, and the fruits of their labor.
No one can have a 'right' to goods and services others must provide or produce. The notion turns the very concept of rights on its head: *rights* is the concept which protects each person in the possession, use and enjoyment of that which is his own — his time, his talents, his person, and the products of his labor, i.e., to those things he has acquired without inflicting loss or injury on others."
It's a very interesting and valid argument, and likely one I will add to all my other arguments against it. Just one more reason to VOTE NO ON PROP 4.
For more information about the fight against Prop 4, visit SaveOurSpokane and SpokaneJobs2009.
I am absolutely voting NO on PROP 4. At first glance, the Community Bill of Rights* proposed by EnvisionSpokane sounds great, right? Well, I'd suggest reading it in its entirety before you conclude that Prop 4 is a good idea.
Increased taxes to cover community health care, prevailing wages that will put many smaller companies out of business, tax monies going to pay for all the new lawsuits that will be filed against the city, new businesses looking to locate anywhere BUT here because of how much higher the price for doing business here would be, random bands of “neighborhood councils” vetoing everything proposed by the city.
Um, yeah. That sounds wonderful. Are you kidding me?
Breaking it down further...
The bill of rights states: “For residents otherwise unable to access [preventative health care], the City shall guarantee such access by coordinating with area healthcare providers to create affordable fee-for-service programs within eighteen (18) months following adoption of this Charter provision.” I heard one argument that this wouldn't take much for city staff to complete and that there would be fewer emergency room visits, which would lower costs.
First of all, it's naive to think that such a guarantee would not take hundreds, if not thousands, of staff hours to fulfill. Also, I come from a family of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel and I can tell you that we've had as much preventative health care as anyone could. But we’ve had family members in the ER for a number of different injuries and sudden-onset health issues. So if there were fewer ER visits overall, I highly doubt that it would be enough to make a dent in the cost of the staff time it would take to implement such a program.
Having to pay prevailing wage (which is the median pay for a given field in a specific location) for construction projects will significantly increase costs, not only for the construction companies, but also for any organization that is having a building constructed. I’m all for people being paid what they’re worth, but I don’t think that anyone should get middle of the range payment regardless of their skill level and work ethic.
According to the complete text of the documents filed with the Spokane County Auditor, the fourth duty that would be imposed upon the City of Spokane would be “providing legal defense for actions of neighborhood councils in vetoing land development projects,” which means that the City would foot the bill for all the impending lawsuits from businesses whose projects are vetoed.
And that leads me into my next point: Neighborhoods can veto development plans with as little as 15% of the people who voted in the previous election within the neighborhood limits. 15%! So if your neighborhood has 100 voting residents, you better hope that 15 of them don’t disagree with the other 85 or those 15 could cause a development project to be vetoed.
The bill of rights says “The City shall ensure the availability of low-income housing stock sufficient to meet the needs of the low-income housing community.” If low-housing doesn’t exist now, I’m curious where it's supposed to come from. Is the City supposed to build low-income housing? If that’s the case, what if more than 15% of the residents of the neighborhood the City wants to build said housing in are not supportive of the project? Oh yeah! They can just veto it.
Part of the 9th amendment states: “Any person seeking to enforce the rights of ecosystems, may enforce these rights. Enforcement actions shall be filed as civil actions in a court of competent jurisdiction, against any person, government, or entity violating these rights…” While I absolutely agree that entities abusing our environment and ecosystems should be held accountable for their actions, it's ridiculous that someone would be able sue the City, an organization or an individual on behalf of the river, a patch of trees, etc.
The bill of rights says the City will be required to provide “sufficient funding to neighborhood councils for the creation, adoption, and enforcement of neighborhood plans” and yet there is no mention as to a dollar amount for such funding. It’s illogical and irresponsible to suggest something like this with NO indication of the amount, or of how the amount would be determined, or of where the money would come from.
I must admit that when I first heard about this citizens’ bill of rights, I was excited about the prospect of something that seemed so innovative. But upon further reading, I was extremely disappointed to discover how truly deceptive the language is in the bill of rights. I do think that a bill of rights for the citizens of Spokane is something I could vote for in the future, if it was developed in a socially-, fiscally-, environmentally-responsible way with language that is concise and transparent, and if it accounted for all details and outcomes.
I wish that instead of WASTING time and money promoting this joke of a bill of rights, and now more time and money fighting it**, the residents and leaders of this community were focusing on continuing to move forward in the POSITIVE direction we’re already headed.
I am disappointed with how many smart young people in Spokane have been duped by the smoke and mirrors of this ludicrous, flawed proposition.
I am a young, smart, environmentally- and socially-conscious business professional, wife and mother who was born and raised in Spokane. I strongly feel the need to protect myself, my family and the city I love and I will VOTE NO ON PROP 4. I ask you to VOTE NO too.
* Read an interesting take on the notion of "rights."
** For more information about the fight against Prop 4, visit SaveOurSpokane and SpokaneJobs2009.
It's official: I'm heading to New York City to be a part of two social media panels at the E-Tourism Summit! It's all thanks to the support I've received from the Spokane Regional CVB management team to make Twitter & Facebook work for our destination.
The Summit is October 13 & 14 at the Marriott New York Marquis right in the heart of Manhattan near Times Square.
I'm included in the list of speakers, complete with photo and speaker bio. Woo hoo! Fancy!
Chad and I have never been to NYC, so if everything works out as we hope it will he'll be coming with me. He can investigate the city while I'm in session, then in the evenings we'll explore together. And we're hoping to stay an extra day if we can make it work so we'll have a whole day together in the city.
Thank God for my parents' willingness to hang with the twins for 5 days & 4 nights. (Chad's parents will be out of town that week.)
We are so very excited! If you have any ideas as to where we should go/see/do/try, please let me know!
